Have I Peaked?

[AssistanceRequired]

February 14th, TU 593: Eq 617: Ex 603

April 17th, TU 648: Eq 659: Ex 648

I have three judgements all two years old and 5 current accounts in good standing:

I plan to pay down balances by 50% this month. 

Have I peaked because of the bankruptcy, and two judgements or can I continue to improve my score?  Also, will paying down the 50% hurt my current scores?

Thanks so much in advance.

[MidnightVoice]

Age helps everyone.  The longer your perfect payment history, the better the scores.  It might be slow, but it does help

[cobra19]

AR - you have room for improvement, there. As those judgements age, you'll see a rise in scores.

Paying down balances can only help. The more you can pay down, the more of a help it will be. Pay down to 9% and see what happens 

Message Edited by cobra19 on 04-18-2008 10:15 AM

[Anonymous]

You still have more room to improve as long as you have debt.

[islandchild82]

---

ilovepizza wrote:
You still have more room to improve as long as you have debt.

---

That's a great way to state it! Puts debt in perspective, and definitely reminds me that I have work to do!

[AssistanceRequired]

Oh, I know I have a long way to go.  I was in a very dark place and finally see a little touch of sunlight.  My concern was that because of my judgments, my scores would stay where they are for the next 8 years.

A good credit score is right up there with a solid retirement savings plan.  It really is a wonderful thing to have this place to express my concerns and get solid information and suggestions.

Thank you all so much.

AssistanceRequired

[haulingthescoreup]

---

@AssistanceRequired wrote:

Oh, I know I have a long way to go. I was in a very dark place and finally see a little touch of sunlight. My concern was that because of my judgments, my scores would stay where they are for the next 8 years.

A good credit score is right up there with a solid retirement savings plan. It really is a wonderful thing to have this place to express my concerns and get solid information and suggestions.

Thank you all so much.

AssistanceRequired

---

You'll be astonished to see what happens with a big paydown in CC debt. That's the util we're always going on about. Paying down installment debt has a lot less impact on scores, so if you are faced with one or the other, set a goal of paying off all your cards but one, and have it report under 10% (not at 10%, but under) of its credit limit. Do let one report, though, strange but true. If you still have money left after controlling CC debt, then you can start reducing installment debt if that makes sense financially.

Time does help. We have many members here with some pretty unpleasant stuff on their reports, but as it all gets older, and their current histories are clean and util low, their scores do go up. You're not stuck forever.